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Food Shortage Controversy

Food Shortage Controversy

I believe this current Food Shortage has been artificially created largely due to three things:

1. Over emphasis on global warming and not focusing on energy options
2. Ethanol fuel as an alternative to oil instead of solar energy
3. Panic buying because of rising costs.

I hope all the over zealous Global Warmers are happy. We will 'save the earth' and die in the process. All the US has to do is say that they will not use grain for fuel and everything goes back to normal. Or is there something more here? Why create a global worry over food. Is this to take attention off of Iraq, or something different?

Controversy Shortage Food

JB, you have left me with nothing to say, except congratulations! You are exactly right. Now all we need is some more government "help" to really make a mess of things.

Food Shortage Controversy History & Civil Business Politics

In the reading I have done, it is in part due to the high oil price. That in turn has people looking for other quick solutions (green/organic fuels to burn) to lessen the dependence on oil. This has definitely created a demand for ethanol! Well guess what the high price of oil has done for ethanol...yepper...it is going up as well. So now if you are the average farmer and you harvested your crop, do you sell it to the food market or do you sell it to the now good paying ethanol production market? Your no fool...you take the top dollar!

Do you sell that grain on the cheap to feed cows? No way...more money in that ethanol business. Oooops...Japan now has a butter shortage!

https://www.japaninc.com/node/3105

Price of milk increasing pretty good lately. Of course it is, cows eat grain and dont produce ethanol.

I guess all the environmentalist will be happy, but they really shouldnt be since farming is one of the chief contributors to the green house gases that fuel the fears. We really need to be looking in another direction for fuel.

Controversy Shortage Food

Oil a factor yes, it is what started the affair, but I believe the move towards ethanol is foolish. Oil is high so we look for something that will make everything even higher? No, we look for something that forgets oil and other dependent fuel sources that come from earth - try solar energy. Besides the initial development it is FREE! I hope the nations come together and put pressure on the US and others to forget the whole affair otherwise we pay the price. In another Thread I said that it takes enough grain for an adult for one year to fill one tank of an SUV - ridiculous!

Controversy Shortage Food

Oh it is rediculous and not even practical, but the environmentalist are overjoyed that it is happening. At least for now they are, since I peg this group as being potential whiners when the shortages actually hit their dinner table.

Unfortunately, the one thing that would right this ship quickly is a reduction in oil prices. If they were to go back to just $50 - 60 per barrel, you would see the world economy take a nice deep breath and relax. However, the only thing that is going to make that happen is a slump in the world economy (least that is what I see happening). It will be kind of like that speed bump we hit in the late 70's early 80's. If we were to get relief in the oil prices for a while and get incentives from governments to make it attractive for companies to invest in alternative energy sources, it could work, but we are going to need that temporary relief from the $100 per barrel oil prices.

Food Shortage Controversy

Indirectly, and this is just a small part of the contribution was giving the Olympics to China and heating up their economy with massive building undertakings. Anytime the government of a country that big spends hundreds of millions on building you have a major problem. More building and investment means a greater need for oil and the laws of supply and demand come into play. Could you imagine a place like China with a rice shortage? Could that ever happen.

Here is another part of the controversy though... the earth is big enough to feed everyone several times a day and enough to spare for ethanol, so why can't it. I have read in certain instances the same government wants more wheat, but at the same time takes away the same land needed to grow it for other projects - so logical.

Food Shortage Controversy

JB you are right on the money, the government is at the basis of this after all was it not Bush who with the oil barrens killed the electric cars back in the mid 80's?

I do not nor will ever believe any government in the world has its people at the focus of the policies. Self profit is second only to country profit and it is these driving factors that has placed the world into a grain shortage.


The world population is focused on renewable sources but why grain fuels because they are easy to make. They also appeal to the average Joe who does not look past the immediate benefits of such a product. If the world environment is the reason for using this product then it is a self contradiction. We are still polluting the environment with a burnt fuel does it really matter which one burns? Only marginally.

Are nuclear reactors and more electrical power a better mid solution till Solar and wind power can become a reality? This would ease the grain burden yes at a cost up front but that is better then the long term costs of the present path that has been chosen.

Only reason I can see is that the oil barons do not own them!

Food Shortage Controversy Politics Business Civil & History

Living in a farming state and growing up on a farm has lead me to think a lot. Right now I see more of the fields actually being used to produce grain. A few years ago the farmers were getting money not to plant crops. I think the use of corn to produce ethanol is not right. Switch grass is better at producing ethanol and it produces more than corn does. This way we keep the grain to feed cattle or humans. Let farmers plant switch grass if they want to make ethanol. I also believe that wind power is a very reliable energy source. Here in Iowa we have a lot of wind farms. I think right now we are second in the nation of amount of power supplied due to wind.